Green Telecom India 2010 recently took the initiative to discuss about the Telecom Equipments and Tower’s pollution and the radiation. One of the most ongoing elements of the 2nd International Conference Green Telecom India 2010-India, was the controversies over the supposedly high level of radiation as well as pollution from the telecom towers and the equipment, which include mobile handsets.

Rajan Mathew, Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India has recently conducted a joint study of the EMF of various telecom equipments and informed that the total pollution level of the whole ICT industry was merely two per cent of the pollution in India. Since, telecom industry holds less than half a per cent of the entire ICT total, thus pollution only from it could not be alarming. Also, a plethora of telecom executives underlined the requirement for greater availability of the grid power in various rural areas of the country, for obviating the need for setting up the diesel gen-sets.

Rajiv Mehrotra, President of Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) emphasized on the lacking of rules and regulations on the pollutants and radiations from telecom equipments and towers. As per the data mentioned by him, out of the total global pollution of 3.8 million tonnes, almost 2.8 million tonnes was produced from India, although India has comparatively less number of cell phone users. Mobility is one of the major drivers of communication in India and the wire lines connectivity is quite limited. It is observed that because of this, mobile phones were having an uneven impact on pollution.

According H. L. Gupta. Head, operations in networks, Bharti Airtel, “the number of towers would go up from 3.4 lakhs now to 4.6 lakhs by 2015, base stations from 5.5 lakhs to 10.7 lakhs, the minutes of usage was rising even as average revenue per use was plunging. Use of green technology in “each and every area of operations” was inevitable and was a great opportunity. The present situation where 60 per cent of the energy came from diesel and 40 per cent from the grid needed to be changed to at least half –half of energy from the two sources to reduce pollution. He suggested a mix of solar, wind and biomass for substituting diesel.”

In his keynote address, Nokia-Siemens Networks global services sales head Samar Mittal estimated the telecom industry’s energy need would is to 60,000 MW by 2050. “Energy costs are rising” he warned. Alternate energy sources like solar panels were expensive and raise operational costs. Networks used 80 per cent of the total energy in the industry. He quoted data to show how energy efficiency in mature markets was almost three times that in emerging markets like India. Nokia-Siemens Networks were experimenting with new renewable energy technologies and that had saved 1.7 GHz of energy in 25 countries.

Talk on such an important topic must create awareness and POAs (Plan of Action) must be implemented, as it is high time now. Since there is a substantial increase in global warming, it further more can great a catastrophic impact on the environment. Let’s not forget, Small Steps result in Great Results. Cellular Operators might in verity help in reducing some amount of pollution.